Posts by JamesThomas

30

To the Household of God that is Israel...

by AGuest in

jw
friends

and those who go with... the greatest of love and peace to you!

very soon now, we will again have opportunity to publicly declare our sonship, (re)ratify our covenant with god, and eat from the tree of life!

from the founding of the world, there have been those whose aim is to persuade us from it, either through lies or through exploitation of our own imperfections.

JamesThomas

Abr, you are very kind ; especially considering how I have been hard on you at times. The Bible is not bad, it can be a stepping stone. The problem is that all too often it instead becomes a prison which supports very restrictive and limited idea of the Divine which separates us into the chosen and the damned; and this causes much unnecessary harm and suffering.

I suggest that as time goes on, and if it feels right, you let go of anything and everything the diminished the Divine (our ultimate and foundational significance) in any way, or seems to shrink it to some object or entity far away and separate from our own deepest and vibrant sense of being and existing. What the word G-O-D points to, is always more, and never less; always closer and never farther away. You'll see.

j

26

What is your idea of worship?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

when i was a jw, my idea of worshipping god was to put in at least 10+ hrs.

in fs monthly, attend 5 mtgs per wk, study for those meetings, make back calls (or what is now called rv's), conduct bible studies, have a family study once a week, pioneer when able, go to all the assemblies, etc.

what, if anything, do you consider worship?.

JamesThomas

I no longer reduce the Divine to a book, or some thing so small as to be separate and apart from this very moment of conscious-existence. So, worship simply becomes life; which unfolds as less concern for the minds interpritations and beliefs, and more silent and acute presence with reality here and now.

j

30

To the Household of God that is Israel...

by AGuest in

jw
friends

and those who go with... the greatest of love and peace to you!

very soon now, we will again have opportunity to publicly declare our sonship, (re)ratify our covenant with god, and eat from the tree of life!

from the founding of the world, there have been those whose aim is to persuade us from it, either through lies or through exploitation of our own imperfections.

JamesThomas

Abr, I am not at all coming from the warm dank dungeon of psychological self-flagellation that your beloved Bible provides for you. Quite the antithesis.

Being One with the Divine, we are in reality whole and complete already (just beneath the broken and diseased "self" we believe ourselves to be). There is nothing we need earn. Nothing to do or become. No rituals to perform. No god to appease. No self flagellation required. We just need to silently look past our wounded beliefs, and deeper into the actuality of our most intimate and immediate sense of being and existing.

j

30

To the Household of God that is Israel...

by AGuest in

jw
friends

and those who go with... the greatest of love and peace to you!

very soon now, we will again have opportunity to publicly declare our sonship, (re)ratify our covenant with god, and eat from the tree of life!

from the founding of the world, there have been those whose aim is to persuade us from it, either through lies or through exploitation of our own imperfections.

JamesThomas

Nice to see you Shelby.

When a fire-fighter saves your life, they do not need nor require any ritualistic requisite of any kind. Why is it you think that your cherished idea of the Divine is less loving and more limited and conditional than the fire-fighter who saved your ass unconditionally at the risk of his or her own life? Why is the fire-fighter more Christ-like than your JAHESHUA MISCHAJAH, the Holy One of Israel, Son and Christ of the Most Holy One of Israel, JAH… of Armies, who needs some form of worship, admiration or ritualistic hoops jumped through before he does anything?

Is it God which is somehow less loving and less moral than the fire-fighter, or is it just your idea of a god which is so painfully small? Why do you continually belittle and reduce the Divine to some thing so diminutive as to require anything from us at all? Is it because you need a conditional god that you may set yourself up as some shining slave and prophetess who is somehow special where others are not?

Doesn't it make more sense that if we are all ONE with God, then that will be realized, no matter what we do, or don't do. No conditions. No strings. No nothing. Now that, is LOVE. But then, this would make you and the Bible readers of the world no more deserving and special than anyone else.

You will get a better understanding of what I am attempting to convey if you focus on what unites us all unconditionally, rather than on what divides us. But it will cost you that special place you think you have in God's eyes. It will cost you your ego.

j

37

Do you believe you have a particular purpose in life?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

i ask this because as a jw, you are programmed to think your only purpose is to preach the good news of the kingdom....period.

but more and more, i've noticed in my own life a strong pull toward something i won't elaborate on, but it has me thinking that maybe we really do each have a particular purpose and it's up to us to discover what it is.

i know i'm kind of new to the forum, but please let me know if any of you have experienced this same kind of unusually strong pull toward something you can't fully explain.

JamesThomas

Personally, I would not use the phrase "killing the ego"; and perhaps should have expressed it differently than: "when the ego dies".

It's more about gently and patiently viewing the mind as it weaves it's little ego, or false patch-work identity. When it is clearly seen, it loses it's power. It will show up periodically, but you know what it is, and it's OK.

j

37

Do you believe you have a particular purpose in life?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

i ask this because as a jw, you are programmed to think your only purpose is to preach the good news of the kingdom....period.

but more and more, i've noticed in my own life a strong pull toward something i won't elaborate on, but it has me thinking that maybe we really do each have a particular purpose and it's up to us to discover what it is.

i know i'm kind of new to the forum, but please let me know if any of you have experienced this same kind of unusually strong pull toward something you can't fully explain.

JamesThomas

Journey, we are very close here, and I do not really disagree with anything you said, it's just that there is a little deeper we can go here that dissolves the entire concept of duality.

Go deep enough, investigate thoroughly enough, and it can be clearly seen that it is not that God created us, and then there is an us creating other things or being creative. There is God manifesting....period. There is no us as anything separate and apart from That. There is no purpose, or goal, other than the wonder of this moment. The only reality there is.

Perhaps it's just a semantics problem.

It may look as if I am splitting hairs, but it is extremely easy to remain lost in the mind-generated-believed-self, the false self. The mind tenaciously weaves an identity out of desires and dreams, goals and purposes, fears and beliefs. It's extremely easy to get lost in space, time, and purpose; and so find ourselves reaching out into a illusory tomorrow which steals away the present moment of existence.

This does not mean we stop creating or doing things. I am in the middle of developing a new consumer product which will take many, many months yet of hard work. Life goes on. The universe unfolds. It's just there is not a isolated little "me" here -- who is doing it or has a purpose.

When the false ego dies, and the true Self realized, it is seen that you are all existence, everything, just no particular thing. You'll see.

j

48

Would you have followed Jesus

by JH in

if you could have been one of the apostles, would you have given up everything you have today to follow jesus?.

.

JamesThomas

No. I could not dishonor and subtract Divinity out of the entire universe and shrink it down in some specific little man that I could worship him as god.

j

Edited to add: That said, if he was willing to truly honor That which has no beginning and no end, I would have met with him as a beloved brother.

37

Do you believe you have a particular purpose in life?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

i ask this because as a jw, you are programmed to think your only purpose is to preach the good news of the kingdom....period.

but more and more, i've noticed in my own life a strong pull toward something i won't elaborate on, but it has me thinking that maybe we really do each have a particular purpose and it's up to us to discover what it is.

i know i'm kind of new to the forum, but please let me know if any of you have experienced this same kind of unusually strong pull toward something you can't fully explain.

JamesThomas

Do you believe you have a purpose?

I suggest that first and foremost there be a radical and acute investigation into this "you" that is believed to be, rather than create drama around a locus that may not actually exist.

Certainly it may seem to be, but is it true that we are some incomplete-being that requires some additional purpose? Or is all significance found immediately present and complete within conscious Be-ing itself? I suggest taking the first step first, before jumping ahead and making a grand journey.

Perhaps what already IS, is infinitely more real and fulfilling than any purpose, or any other thing -- not present.

j

11

The Path Not Taken

by choosing life in

jw
friends

there comes a time when you realize that there are paths you can no longer go down.

at first, it is hard to tell whether the path changes or you change.

but the farther along the new path you travel, the more you find that it is really you, yourself that has changed.

JamesThomas

Nice post, CL.

Perhaps, a lot has to do with the fact that as a Witness we extract much of our identity out of the Bible or other written interpritations of it. In this process we subtract significance from the present moment of life and reality, and confine and bastardize it to words, beliefs and thoughts. Often, when we leave the Witnesses we are afraid and so take the same book and two dimensional identity along with us (what would we be without our little deity?). Sometimes though, we come to notice that there is a reality outside the book; something far more vibrant and real. Then, it's as if we are set free....because we are.

j

4

Einstein's God & Ethics Discussion On NPR's "Speaking Of Faith"

by Madame Quixote in

jw
friends

i enjoyed listening to this when i woke up this morning:.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/einstein/index.shtml.

hope you enjoy it, too..

JamesThomas

Only had time to listen to about 30 minutes of it, enough to know we share a similar view.

I too when using the word God, do not mean what most people do; but rather feel that what the word G-O-D points to is not a personal deity, or anything which is circumscribable; but rather That which all existence flows from, is sustained by, and foundationally is.

Einstein, it seems felt that "God" could be mathematically defined in such a way as to be predictable, and so was extremely flippant when Quantum Physicists discovered chaos and stark unpredictability at the atomic level. To this he gave his famous reply "God does not play dice". I don't hold to such a restrictive view; but rather feel that even to God, God is a mystery and wonder, so that the next moment is always a surprise.

j